XVII. OF SUPERSTITION.1 IT were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch2 saith well to that purpose: Surely (saith he) I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born; 3 as the poets speak of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may the homely and native intelligence of this nation and land; but we do surpass all nations and peoples in piety and in religion, and in this one wisdom of recognizing that all things are ruled and gov erned by the power of the immortal gods. M. Tullii Ciceronis Oratio De Haruspicum Responso in P. Clodium in Senatu Habita. Caput ix. 19. 1 This Essay is omitted in the Italian translation. S. 2 Plutarch, born about 46 A.D., Greek historian, author of fortysix 'Parallel Lives' of Greeks and Romans. An excellent translation, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans was made from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, in Bacon's youth, 1579. North's Plutarch was Shakspere's store-house of classical knowledge. 3 The quotation is from 'Plutarch's Morals,' Of Superstition or Indiscreet Devotion. 10. Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays. Vol. I. Edited by W. W. Goodwin. With an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was 4 Saturn has been identified with the Greek Cronos. the youngest of the Titans, children of Sky (Uranus) and Earth (Gaea). Sky and Earth foretold to Cronos that he would be deposed by one of his own children, so he swallowed them one after another as soon as they were born. Cronos was confounded with Chronos, Time, and the myth then comes to explain the tendency of time to destroy whatever it has brought into existence. 5 Natural piety. Morality. : be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.1 Therefore atheism did never perturb2 states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil 3 times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to 4 1 "Sickness and sorrows come and go, but a superstitious soule hath no rest." Robert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy. tion 3. Section 4. Member 1. Subsection 3. 2 Perturb. To disturb greatly; to unsettle; to confuse. "What folk ben ye that at myn hom comynge Parti Chaucer. The Knightes Tale. ll. 47-48. Civil. Tranquil, well-governed, orderly. "the round-uproared world Should have shook lions into civil streets, The Council of Trent, summoned to meet at Trent in the Austrian Tyrol, March 15, 1545, was the parting of the ways between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. 5 Eccentric. A circle not having the same centre as another. Epicycle. A little circle whose centre is on the circumference of a greater circle. 7 Engine. Artifice, contrivance, device. "Nor did he scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent Milton. Paradise Lost. I. 749-751. save the phænomena; though they knew there were no such things;1 and in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are, pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; over-great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre; the favouring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations: and, lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more deformed. And as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go furthest from the superstition formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad; which commonly is done when the people is the reformer. 1 "Some pleasant wits said, that if the Astrologers, not knowing the true causes of the celestiall motions, to salue the appearances, have invented Eccentriques and Epicicles, it was no wonder if the Councel, desiring to salue the appearances of the supercelestiall motions, did fall into excentricitie of opinions." The Historie of the Councel of Trent. Nathanael Brent. II. 227. Translated from Fra Paolo Sarpi's Historia del Concilio Tridentino. XVIII. OF TRAVEL. 1 TRAVEL, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. That young men travel under some tutor, or grave servant, I allow 1 well; so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go; what acquaintances they are to seek; what exercises. or discipline the place yieldeth. For else young men shall go hooded, and look abroad little. It is a strange thing, that in sea voyages; where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in land-travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it; as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation. Let diaries therefore be brought in use. The things to be seen and observed are, the courts of princes, specially when they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns, and so the havens and harbours; antiquities and ruins; libraries; colleges, disputations, and lectures, where any are; 1 Allow. Approve. "The Lord alloweth the righteous." Psalm xi. 6. The Psalter. shipping and navies; houses and gardens of state and pleasure, near great cities; armories; arsenals; magazines; exchanges; burses;1 warehouses; exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers and the like; comedies, such whereunto the better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go. After all which the tutors or servants ought to make diligent inquiry. As for triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men need not to be put in mind of them; yet are they not to be neglected. If you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room, and in short time to gather much, this you must do. First as was said, he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth. Then he must have such a servant or tutor as knoweth the country, as was likewise said. Let him carry with him also some card or book describing the country where he travelleth; which will be a good key to his inquiry. Let him keep also a diary. Let him not stay long in one city or town; more or less as the place deserveth, but not long; nay, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another; which is a great adamant2 of acquaintance. Let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good company of 1 Burse. The French bourse, a purse. The sign of a purse was once set over the shop of a banker, hence bourse comes to mean exchange. 2 Adamant. Loadstone. |